The Rhombus (1974 - 1977): Bridging the Intercampus Divide

In the mid-1970s, Wilson joined Dickinson, Gettysburg and Franklin and Marshall Colleges to publish The Rhombus, a student literary review. The Rhombus was published each spring from 1974 to 1977 and featured poetry, short stories, photography and art which were submitted by a variety of students from each of these area institutions. The publication was based at Dickinson College, but Wilson students proudly held seven seats on the editorial board during the four years Wilson was involved: Susan D. Peterson (1974), Athena Varonnis (1974-75), Betsy May (1975), Paula Breen (1976-77), M. J. Phelps (1976-77), Angela Gable (1976) and Gretchen Van Ness (1977).

After 1977, The Rhombus appears to have died off. In 1979, The Bottom Shelf Review took its place as the campus literary review.

The following are examples of student poetry that appeared in the The Rhombus in 1977:

“Genetics“
By Bernadette Russell

Cells rip,
Dividing a nucleus, a house
Full of secrets
Whispered by unborn babies.

Chromosomes knock and scatter
Bumping the walls
Leaving dents
Inside deep and dark
Chasms of cells.

Darkness flows
Around the secrets
Like blood.

Sometimes we think
Something has gone wrong.
But every so often,
Just for kicks
Room Service
Sends up a freak.

“With a Unicorn, My Sister”
By Gretchen Van Ness

courting disease and infection
she arrives, coat blown open,
fingertips pink and knuckles white
with cold, my sister
grasping papers and stories in her arms
pushing strands of windy hair
from her rosey face

she has spent the afternoon
perfecting a rainbow over
her mermaid’s head, with a unicorn
nearby this time, multicolored
and leaping across the page
the vision still dances
in her eyes

but it is hers alone
translation finds the stories
pale and quickly dismissed
and her hot chocolate is soon finished
with her nose blown and fingers
rewarmed she makes a final sweep
through my rooms into her coat
and flies out the door
managing a distracted goodbye
no doubt already composing
the next dream

--Rachel Ward